Cllr claims that Johnstown site was 'given away'

A Meath County Council debate on the provision of schools in Navan was told this week that a landowner in the Johnstown area of the town had given the Department of Education and Science a free five-acre site for a school building but that the department had then given it back "rent-free" to the people who owned the old St Martha's College in the area. Councillor Tommy Reilly claimed the department "gave the land away". In the past, he said he had put down two notices of motion calling on the council to compulsorily purchase land it needed for schools. "We can rezone all the land we like, but if we don't own it, we can do nothing," he said. The debate was taking place against the background of a decision by the Department of Education and Science to give the patronage of a proposed new community national school - Ard Rí - to Meath VEC. The school is opening in temporary accommodation at Navan Rugby Club in September. Cllr Jenny McHugh, also principal of St Stephen's National School in Johnstown, put down a motion for Monday's meeting of the council on behalf of the Navan and Johnstown Schools Development Group calling on the council to demand that the department review the schools' provision in the Navan and Johnstown areas and fulfil its commitments to the existing schools first, before considering any proposed new primary school. She said that commitments already made to Navan and Johnstown schools included two new sites (Educate Together and St Stephen's NS), 116 classrooms and in excess of 30 ancillary rooms, as well as two schools for children with special needs. Cllr Shane Cassells said the schools' issue was causing anger in the town at the present time. It was a fact that 500 children were in temporary school accommodation and he had a strong objection to this. "Putting children in on the floor of a rugby club in sight of the Heineken and Guinness taps is just not on," he remarked. He said that, in a pamphlet circulated in the town, it was stated that, within a year, a new "operational facility" for the community national school would be opened in the Johnstown area. "That is a smack in the face for the 500 children who are already there in temporary accommodation," he said. Cllr Maria Murphy said she supported asking the minister to fulfil commitments given to existing schools in Navan but she thought Cllr McHugh's motion "dangerous" when it asked that no new primary school be opened until those commitments were fulfilled. She said she supported the new Ard Rí school under the patronage of Meath VEC. Meath was the first county outside Dublin to patron such a school, she added. "Some 93 per cent of our country's national schools are patroned by the Catholic Church and the department recognised the need for alternatives. In Navan, according to the last census, 14 per cent of people declared they were not of the Catholic faith." They should welcome the department asking Meath VEC to patron the new school because it was responding to needs in the community, she said. Cllr Joe Reilly said Cllr McHugh's motion was "not anti-VEC" but had grown out of a frustration over the years at lack of policy and lack of planning. The Johnstown area, with its 3,000 houses, was "a town in itself" and needed educational facilities. "There is a belief in the Catholic and Church of Ireland Churches that they should not be expected to educate children who were not of their faiths and that's OK by me," said Cllr Reilly. Cllr Regina Doherty said she was not anti-VEC and was very pro-VEC and pro-educational choice. However, it was the case that four national schools in Navan were "badly let down" and the new community national school was being "fast-tracked", she said.